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IT salaries in 2018

How much will they rise?

In our recent IT Forecast survey, IT leaders expressed concern that talent shortages are causing productivity losses and lengthening timelines for IT teams and projects. Unfortunately, those department heads can't just crack open their corporate piggy bank and pay you a lot more. This means employers will continue to complain about a tight talent market while IT salaries continue to see modest growth. (Except AI engineers, who can pretty much fill in their own paycheck amounts right now). Some will also turn to contingent help to borrow the talent they can't afford to buy.

The good news: In 2018, 58 percent of IT leaders expect overall salaries to increase while only 2 percent expect a decrease.

The bad news: Employers don’t expect salaries to rise dramatically for any major skill set.

The head-scratch-inducing news: Despite a growing economy, the criticality of digital modernization efforts and a longstanding talent crunch, nearly 2 in 5 employers expect to see no increase in salaries for their staff.

Which IT roles can expect their salaries to increase the most?

As most companies have resigned themselves to experiencing costly data breaches, it's not surprising that they're offering security pros the biggest salary increases this year. Software developers and engineers and DevOps skills continue years of steady gains, trailing close close behind InfoSec.

[Related: Break into InfoSec with tips from experienced recruiters

Salary trends by skill set

IT Skill Set

Increase

Stay the same

Decrease

Architect

31%

67%

2%

Business/Systems Analyst

26%

71%

3%

Cloud

35%

62%

3%

Data Analytics

35%

62%

3%

Help Desk / Tech Support

21%

72%

7%

Information Security

42%

56%

3%

Mobile

26%

70%

4%

Networking

27%

70%

3%

Project Manager

30%

67%

4%

QA/Testing

21%

74%

5%

Software Engineer/Developer/DevOps

40%

58%

2%

Trainer

16%

78%

6%

With nearly half of IT leaders planning to increase staff—and only 14 percent planning decreases—employers may find they need to increase wages more than they think. "Sometimes IT leaders are conservative when estimating salary in a survey, but end up ponying up more cash after going months without filling a position," says Jason Hayman, TEKsystems' research manager.

Thinking Forward

Whether it’s transforming your business, building an all-star team or finding the right fit for your professional ambitions, we’re in it with you. Let’s innovate and reinvent. Let’s own change, together.

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